Get Graphic! Classroom Kits provide you with the books and support material you need to teach selected classroom units with a graphic novel

Each Graphic Novel Classroom Kit contains 30 copies of the selected book, subject specific audio/visual material, a folder of support materials and an information/contents sheet. The subject focus and specific content of each kit is listed below.

To request a kit, you must first locate it in the library’s catalog. This can be done by performing a title, author, or keyword search. (Performing a keyword search using the phrase "graphic novel classroom kit" will provide you with a list of all the kits owned by the library.)

When you have identified the kit that you would like to borrow, click on the "request title" link in the upper left corner of the page and proceed through the request process as directed.

Kits have a loan period of 6 weeks and renewals are not permitted. You may have two kits checked out per library card at any one time. Kits may be returned to any Buffalo and Erie County Public Library location.

Kits are available on a first come, first served basis. It may take up to one week for delivery to the pick-up library, so be sure to plan ahead!

To access the library’s catalog in order to find and request a Graphic Novel Classroom Kit, please click here

The Arrival
By Shaun TanThe Arrival is a wordless graphic novel that tells the story of a man who is forced to leave his family and country behind in search of more safe and promising lands. He travels a long way to reach a country that is completely foreign: strange animals, odd customs and an indecipherable language. Like many immigrants, this man must do the best he can in order to survive in a culture of unlimited unknowns. After reading The Arrival, readers can truly relate to the struggle of what it is like to be an outsider unsure of how to get by in a new world.

American Born Chinese
By Gene Yang
American Born Chinese is a tale comprised of three different story lines, three different characters, but one single idea. Jin Wang, the son of Chinese immigrants, eats lunch by himself in the corner of the schoolyard and gets picked on by bullies and jocks, but dreams of how he could fit in. The question is how far will he go to get it? The second storyline is the tale of the Monkey King. Not content to be merely a monkey, the Monkey King did everything in his power to become a Great Sage, Equal of Heaven, until he was informed by Tze-Yo-Tzuh, creator of all existence, that he was merely a monkey after all. It's not until the Monkey King can accept what he is that he is able to free himself from his self-induced prison. Last there is the sitcom plight of Danny, an All-America teen shamed by his cousin Chin-Kee. Buck-toothed, with a long braid and in traditional Chinese dress, Chin-Kee is an amalgamation of all the racist stereotypes held about Chinese people. Jin's hopes and humiliations might be mirrored in Chin-Kee's destructive glee or the Monkey King's struggle to come to terms with himself, but each character's expressions and actions are perfectly familiar. By the conclusion of the book all three story lines creatively and effectively come together to deliver a single lesson: accept who you are and you'll already have reached out to others.

Journey Into Mohawk Country
by H.M. van den Bogaert and George O’Connor
With the exact text from van den Bogaert’s travel log, this graphic novel transports readers to the 1600s when Dutch settlers were exploring the Northeastern lands. O’Connor’s graphics add new depths to the text, making it easier for readers to fully understand the amazing trek that was taken across what is now New York State.

Journey Into Mohawk Country Subject focus
Social studies: geography, Native American studies, economics, New York State history
English: primary source documents, narrative, journaling

Levitation: Physics and Psychology in the Service of Deception
By Jim OttavianiLevitation is the true story of one of the greatest illusions ever performed that took place at the turn of the 20th century in England. John Nevil Maskelyne, a man of principles, refused many offers made by the persistent American magician Harry Kellar to buy his wondrous creation and bring it back to the United States. Fed up with trying and being denied, Kellar boldly and fearlessly got what he wanted (the secrets behind the illusion), and headed home for America where he improved upon and perfected the famous trick. The rivalry became even tenser as Kellar passed the trick along to his successor, Howard Thurston, and forever changed the enchantment of the levitation illusion.

Subject Focus:
Mathematics, Science and Technology: Use with energy unit; levers/pulleys, forces of motion
Social Studies: Use with Progressive Era unit, can tie in to social and political reform issues; use with New York State/Buffalo history unit.

Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History
By Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman tells the story of his father's hardships and survival during the Holocaust. Each scene opens at the elder Spiegelman's home in Rego Park, N.Y. Art, who was born after the war, is visiting his father, Vladek, to record his experiences in Nazi-occupied Poland. The Nazis, portrayed as cats, introduce increasingly repressive measures, until the Jews, drawn as mice, are systematically hunted and herded toward the Final Solution. Vladek was a POW, but managed to sneak out of one of the camps that held him, only to later find himself and his family thrown into the Auschwitz death camps. Vladek saves himself and his wife by a combination of luck and wits, all the time enduring the torment of a hunted outcast. Spiegelman relates the effect of those events on the survivors' later years, including his own adult life as he too, bears the burden of his parents' experiences. This is a survivor's tale, as well as a tale of how a son tries to patch up a damaged relationship with his father.

Subject Focus: Memoir, World War II, Discrimination, Religious Persecution, Genocide, Family History, World History

Support Materials: DVDs: Frontline: Memory of the Camps Life in a Jar

Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: and Here My Troubles Began
By Art Spiegelman
This sequel picks up where Maus I left off, with Vladek's separation from his wife Anja, after arriving at Auschwitz. There Vladek must struggle to survive starvation and disease as well as the guards and the ovens -- all while trying to get news of his wife from Auschwitz's second camp, Birkenau. In the WWII segments, Spiegelman captures the horrors that took place during that time and explores survivor’s guilt and generational guilt. Maus II is not only Vladek’s continuing story, but also Spiegelman’s story as he continues to work on this book after his father's death. The interconnections and complex characterizations are engrossing, as are the vivid personal accounts of living in the camps. This is a heartbreaking look at one of history's greatest tragedies.

Subject Focus: Memoir, World War II, Discrimination, Religious Persecution, Genocide, Family History, World History, Family Relationships

Persepolis I
By Marjane SatrapiPersepolis is Marjane Satrapi's memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. Satrapi paints an unforgettable portrait of daily life in Iran: of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life, of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval and of the enormous toll repressive regimes exact on the individual spirit. Marjane’s child's-eye-view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows the reader to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family.

Satchel Paige
By James Sturm and Rich Tommaso
This historical graphic novel tells the story of one of the greatest baseball legends Leroy “Satchel” Paige. Living in a racist era and facing adversity every day, Paige challenged Jim Crow laws while playing in the Negro Baseball Leagues. By demonstrating the true discrimination African Americans faced in the Jim Crow south, this book gives readers a genuine taste of the time period.

Teachers/Librarians: To find out how to borrow graphic novels to use with your students, click here.

Fetured

I Kill Giants
Joe Kelly (Author), J. M. Ken Niimura (Illustrator)
Barbara is an angry elementary-school girl who is known as a freak and claims to be a killer of giants. She faces bullies and storms with no fear, but cannot face what she hides from at home. The story is heart wrenching and wonderful at the same time. This work is an example of why comic books are not only art, but a necessary medium to tell a full story. The art blends so well with the writing you will find yourself thinking “Did I just read a comic or a small beautiful novel ?” Truly an example of why comic books/graphic novels are great.